Feminism and the White Feather Campaign During World War 1

My previous post seems to have caused a stir at r/mensrights, with some (apparently MRAs) questioning my claim that it was namely ‘feminists’ who handed out white feathers to males wearing civilian clothing (including children).

Well I was a little bit imprecise and perhaps unwarranted in describing the girls who handed out feathers to the 16 year old boy as ‘femnists’. Of course, I have no idea if those girls were feminists, and neither I am claiming categorically that their actions implied or entailed that they were feminists.

I should also point out that in the two chapters of ‘The Second Sexism’ that I have so far read, the author David Benatar makes clear that he is not an ‘anti-feminist’, and carefully distinguishes between different types of feminism (and even I, like him, support true ‘egalitarian feminism’, although I clearly have less faith than him that it even barely exists in practice).

However, it is known amongst many online men’s rights activists that the suffragettes played a major part in the shameful white feather campaigns of the First World War. I have read accounts of this online and in books (even feminist books) many times. But it seems that many or most of the subscribers to r/mensrights are not aware of this historical fact.

Just a cursory look online will provide numerous links to information regarding the role that early feminists did play in the scandalous campaigns to shame men into fighting in world war 1 – including disabled men, conscientious objectors, men working in vital industries, and even underage boys.

I haven’t got time to post much material tonight, but I will add to this during the week. Readers are also invited to post any links they find themselves in the comments section.

The justification for political involvement and military force was framed in gender specific imagery with sexually violent overtones. “Playing on the allegorical representation of Liberty as a woman, Allied artists repeatedly depicted a female Belgium stripped to the waist, bound and violated . . .” (Gullace, Sexual Violence 16). It was this kind of propagandized imagery that stimulated and popularized the war effort. Many of the very same negative characterizations (of men) which had been waged in the “sex war” by the suffragists were now employed to depict the “Teuton barbarian” in the fight against German aggression. The oppressors of both British women (in the fight for equality) and Belgium (in the fight for liberation) were characterized in a sexually aggressive manner. It was this kind of war propaganda, combined with an already fully mobilized feminine consciousness, that both ignited the imaginations of and guided the actions of the “White Feather Brigade.”

Shaming men into political or military action is not unique to the tactics used by the women of wartime Britain. The idea carries all the way back to ancient times and is evidenced by the comical yet poignant depiction put forth by Aristophanes in Lysistrata. In World War I alone, both a women’s contingent in Russia and in the United States utilized the same tactics to sway men into military service. It is the timing and momentum of “The White Feather Brigade” and the anti-masculine sentiment which was attached to the “feathering” that ties this wartime activity to the feminist movement.

In 1914 despite widespread pro war propaganda, male enthusiasm for shipping off to go get slaughtered in foreign battlefields was low. To overcome the reluctance of young men to get themselves killed or maimed for the benefit of a few hereditary elites and royals, Admiral Charles Fitzgerald began organizing a groups of women to help “convince” the men of Britain to enlist.

Using public humiliation, the objective of these groups was to shame civilian men into joining the armed services. “This aim was to be accomplished by public humiliation — the women handing out white feathers to any man who did not wear a uniform. The feathers were intended as a badge of disgrace, branding the men who received them as cowards, the primary effect of which as to render them as unsuitable in the eyes of women. “The Order of the White Feather” and their recruiting methods quickly spread across Britain. Women of all backgrounds contributed their influence to the war effort.”

“(Gullace, “White Feathers” 178) The zeal and the scope of this gendered phenomenon was paralleled only by the contemporaneous movement for suffrage — a movement which, right before the war, had reached a radical pitch. It is in the radical nature of “The White Feather Brigade” — the confrontational method which was employed by these women toward men — that a tactical tie is evidenced between the pro-suffrage and pro-enlistment movements. It is in the motives and movements of Emmeline Pankhurst that an ideological connection is discovered between the feminine pro-war demonstration of the “White Feather Girls” and the Suffragists.”

Part 3 of ManWomanMyth’s war segment of his excellent series of YouTube videos on the myth of equality :

Not relating to the feminist role, but this clip from a news report brings the white feather campaign to life :

Very well put article.
What is inescapable, is that the white feather is not anomalous female behaviour. It’s indicative of something far worse and probably insurmountable. What’s more, it has received far too little attention from myself and others, and that needs to change.

There was a much simpler calculation behind the white feather campaign. The suffragettes simply saw men as the reactionary element, and reasoned that getting as many men as possible killed in the war would shift the balance of social power to the advantage of women. It was a cull, plainly and simply.

Sadly there is no one to blame for this.
Just another dark episode in History.

Yes, I guess so…
Just like the dark episode in history that’s being made at this very moment, i.e. men being sent to prison for many years as despised, sub-human ‘paedophiles’, for having fully consensual and normal sexual relationships with the girls they love, or even for merely looking at photographs of 17 year old women that the same kinds of women who handed out white feathers to WW1 soldiers, of today: deem are ‘children’ and each time a ‘pervert’ looks at such ‘child pornography’ that ‘child’ is re-victimized as if by some VooDoo like magical evil force…

Thanks Eric, really good article.
It makes me angry how women hold up the “Bad Guy” with such appreaciation and yet men who have gone out to fight lose their lives are treated like shit!

A few yrs ago I was paying respects to my Grandad who had been at Dunkirk, Normandy and beyond when a woman branded me a “warmonger” and I should feel ashamed.
I gave her a mouthful of what was on my mind.
I wonder how this woman had felt if she had been a victim of mass rape like those that happend in Germany, after the Russians, entered.

Gary:
I was the same one who left the comment on Rookh’s article about the white knights and the jesters. At the time that article came out, I had a cousin in Iraq and he told me numerous stories about the ‘heroes’ returning home to catch their wives doing some bad-boy while the soldiers were out going hand-to-hand with the Jihadists. His company commander went home on a surprise leave and found his wife screwing some skateboard toting scumbag on the living room floor with the kids watching TV in the other room!

Then the bitch had the nerve to sue him for divorce; or the excuse that he violated her trust by not telling her that he was coming home. Pfffft. I think if I were deployed over there, I’d take off my uniform and disappear into the populace.

“I wonder how this woman would felt if she had been a victim of mass rape.”

Unfortunately, given the low standards of most women today, she probably would have liked it.

Recent Comments

Dave { It's depressing to think - as a late 20's male - I'm already out of the running for college age girls, nevermind prime high school ones. Things don't get better with age for men; they only get worse. You get more money and status, but lose what matters most to young females: looks. I remember doing a temp job recently.... } – Nov 27, 7:56 PM

detiso { You should write more articles on peak female beauty. I share many views with you, so it's interesting to read. I find it odd how today most men are ridiculed for admitting their attraction to underage post-pubescent females. } – Nov 25, 7:32 PM

theantifeminist { @Frenchman - haha, shame aspies are unable to recognize irony, nor the valid pointing out of double standards when exhibited by the enemy. David Futrelle accused me of being a paedophile for saying that paedohysteria was a men's rights issue when he himself had a long track record of saying far more extreme things than anything I've championed here. I... } – Nov 22, 7:25 PM

Frenchman { Are not you the guy who are famous for saying that it's okay to bang 15yo old girls? Is it a men's right issue when you want? Is it paedophilia and child rape now when it suits you and not for me? This blog is made clearly by a schizoid men and probable an assberger, his insistenced on calling "aspie"... } – Nov 22, 6:25 PM

theantifeminist { If a 5 year old can not fuck, why would they allow it with a 15? both are minors, there is no legal difference at all, there is no legal difference in one of 5 and one of 15, for law and society we are a bunch of child rapist because a minor is a legal child by definition, and... } – Nov 21, 9:45 AM

theantifeminist { It is a fair analogy, because at the time of the first KKK if a black man had sexual relations with a white woman it was considered that the black had raped her, since it was inconceivable for the society that a white had a voluntary relationship with a black. Exactly like a man with a girl now. No, it's... } – Nov 21, 9:40 AM

Feldmarschall { One more thing , you say: "Do you think 5 year olds should be able to vote?" If a 5 year old can not fuck, why would they allow it with a 15? both are minors, there is no legal difference at all, there is no legal difference in one of 5 and one of 15, for law and society... } – Nov 18, 1:25 PM

Feldmarschall { It is a fair analogy, because at the time of the first KKK if a black man had sexual relations with a white woman it was considered that the black had raped her, since it was inconceivable for the society that a white had a voluntary relationship with a black. Exactly like a man with a girl now. Adolescents are... } – Nov 18, 11:40 AM

theantifeminist { I do not know what kind of girls you have known, must have been very pretty, but like most, infantilized by society, however they are not dumb, I instead in these “adolescents” I have found the most intelligent and mature people I known, however I really believe that adults are not enough prepared to vote (not even to dropping their... } – Nov 17, 10:08 PM

theantifeminist { Well, you will go to jail if you have sex with an underage girl. Also, 'jailbait' is probably the only linguistic foothold on reality left after the feminist manipulation of language that has allowed them to virtually control the entire narrative on teen sex (17 year old 'children' who only 'paedophiles' find attractive etc.) a 50’s gay would never use... } – Nov 17, 9:53 PM

Feldmarschall { IMHO 'jailbait' is probably the most aspie concept ever used and nobody noticed except me. I do not understand how WE have been able to assimilate that it a 'crime' what nature commands us, I do not want to offend anyone, but a 50's gay would never use a such type of term nor a black in the Apartheid neither... } – Nov 16, 2:23 PM

RippedOfInTrade { If there is no need for something like this, then why do you want to ban it? Checkmate, the market regulates everything } – Nov 14, 9:04 AM

Dave { Where's my jailbait dammit? >:( Where's my cute braces-wearing teeeeeeeeeeeeen ? :,( Hell, I'd be happy with a slim, age-matched 20-something at this point, but I can't even get that. Guess I have to wait until my generation of women is in their 30's and off the Chad carousel. Or are they waiting until their 40's nowadays? } – Nov 14, 2:00 AM

theantifeminist { @AnotherMan - why? As far as I know, Trump hasn't ever said anything about 'paedophiles'. As far as I know, he hasn't apologized for telling underage girls that they were pretty or he would be dating them soon either. Most paedocrites don't openly (in the public eye and in front of cameras) tell jailbait that they are hot etc. } – Nov 12, 5:56 PM

AnotherMan { I seriously believe that Donald Trump believes that a man who have sex with a underage girl is a paedophile and have underage sex is a criminal act just like feminists thing. } – Nov 09, 4:07 PM

theantifeminist { A man who made money from running beauty contests, bragged to 14 year old girls that he would be dating them at 16, and was falsely accused of child rape is now President of the United States. And the cunt he defeated was one of the women most responsible for defining girls under 18 as children internationally and off limits... } – Nov 09, 8:56 AM

Anti-Feminist Books

"With young girls Nature seems to have had in view what, in the language of the drama, is called a striking effect; as for a few years she dowers them with a wealth of beauty and is lavish in her gift of charm, at the expense of all the rest of their life; so that during those years they may capture the fantasy of some man to such a degree that he is hurried away into undertaking the honorable care of them, in some form or other, as long as they live—a step for which there would not appear to be any sufficient warranty if reason only directed his thoughts. Accordingly, Nature has equipped woman, as she does all her creatures, with the weapons and implements requisite for the safeguarding of her existence, and for just as long as it is necessary for her to have them. Here, as elsewhere, Nature proceeds with her usual economy; for just as the female ant, after fecundation, loses her wings, which are then superfluous, nay, actually a danger to the business of breeding; so, after giving birth to one or two children, a woman generally loses her beauty; probably, indeed, for similar reasons."

Elizabeth Bathory was a 16th Century Hungarian Countess and probably the most prolific serial killer and child murderer in history. She is believed to have sadistically tortured and killed over 600 young adolescent girls through pure sexual jealousy and malice. Obsessed with her fading looks, she would spend hours staring at herself in the mirror before picking out the prettiest of her retinue of young teenage maid servants to be hung up in a gibbot. She would proceed to jab at the poor girl with a sharp lance, causing her to slowly and painfully bleed to death. All the time whilst doing this, Elizabeth would scream furious obscenitites at the dying child.

– United Nations ‘Special Rapporteur on child abuse’Claimed in 2009 that there are over 4 million child porn websites worldwide that constitute a multi-billion dollar industry. An FBI expert recently stated that there were now less than a dozen commerical child porn sites in existence. While millions of children around the world still live in poverty, and thousands die every day from famine, disease and war, her UN feminist mandate is to jet around the world organizing conferences to wipe out the scourge of 17 year old ’children’ choosing to do what they want with their bodies on webcam.